This invention relates to a surface mounter and more particularly to an improved high-speed, high-capability mounter for mounting components on substrates.
A wide variety of types of apparatus have been proposed for mounting small components such as electrical components like resistors, capacitors or integrated circuits on a substrate such as a printed circuit board. Basically, these types of apparatus operate by conveying the circuit boards along a conveyor in a first path. The circuit boards are presented to a mounting station and component feeder sections are disposed on at least one side of the conveyor and from which components are selected by a mounter head. The mounter head then places the components on the printed circuit board.
In an effort to increase the production capabilities and speed of this type of equipment, it has been proposed to provide mounting heads that have a number of pickup devices mounted on them. In addition, it has been proposed, for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,448, entitled "Circuit Board Assembling Device," and assigned to the assignee hereof to provide a pair of carriages which are capable of moving back and forth in a range to pickup components from feeders at either side of the conveyor and place them on the same circuit board.
This type of apparatus significantly increases the speed at which components can be mounted. However, and as is noted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,448, it must be ensured that the individual carriages that carry the mounting heads can move through their path without interfering with each other. This requires at times a sophisticated control in order to assure against collision between the carriages. Furthermore, this type of apparatus generally requires one carriage to be inoperative during at least a portion of the operation of the other carriage and its mounter head. These factors obviously add to the cost of the equipment and reduces its productivity.
It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide an improved surface mounter having high speed and high flexibility.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved surface mounter that will permit the use of two mounting heads and each of which can perform operations without interference from the other.